One January morning in 1599, the bodies of two women were discovered in a house in Poole. Newly catalogued records from the Poole Borough Archive shed light on a murder case which dragged on for over 40 years and led to the execution of one man and suspicion cast on a number of possible accomplices.… Read more Revisiting the ‘High Street Murders’ of 1599
The Herbert collection contains numerous photographs of Weymouth pavilion during the 1950s and 1960s, capturing the moments of its demise as ‘the Ritz’ in 1954 and its re-emergence in 1960. Early 20th Century The Pavilion theatre was originally constructed in Weymouth in 1908 at a cost of £14,000. It became a key venue in Weymouth… Read more A photographic history of Weymouth Pavilion
As a coastal town, Poole has always been vulnerable to attack by sea – from the Roman invasion, through the burning of the town by the Spanish in 1405, right up to the Second World War. ‘All my thoughts are directed towards England’ In the early months of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), the whole country… Read more The Napoleonic Invasion Threat
Dorset History Centre holds many historical and photographic records relating to the stonemason industry on Portland. It is an industry that has international reach and significance. With evidence of quarrying dating back to Roman times, stone-masonry has been a source of labour and wealth in the area for many centuries. Portland stone is an oolitic… Read more The Portland stone industry
Our intern has been working on digitising photographic negatives from the Herbert Collection, supported by Creative Dorset. She shares some highlights which allow us to peek through the keyhole into some of Weymouth’s popular hotels and businesses. The following are all pictures taken of interiors, mainly for businesses in the Weymouth area in 1963 and… Read more Through the keyhole: a historic view of Weymouth interiors
Ed Bristow shares an unexpected trace of the Titanic in an unlikely collection. I was five years old when the wreck of the Titanic was found in 1985; it had been sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic for 73 years by that point. I was having difficulty learning to read at Primary School a… Read more A Tragic Reminder of the Unsinkable Ship
A collection of nearly 1000 negatives from the Hibbs Collection has recently been digitised, providing a fascinating glimpse into Dorset life from 1910-1920 and World War One. Dorset History Centre holds a fascinating series of photographs depicting Swanage life, taken between 1870 and 1950 by HR Hibbs (reference: D-1330). Within this collection are a series of… Read more Portraits and Poses: Early Twentieth Century Photography
Explore Poole’s role in the Civil War through the Poole Borough Archive The Civil Wars The English Civil Wars were a series of conflicts which raged from 1642 to 1651, revolving around the struggle between the Royalists on one side and the forces of Parliament and its allies on the other. Parliament saw the King’s… Read more Poole at War
A newly catalogued letter reveals the desperate measures employed by King Charles I to raise much needed funds in the years leading up to the Civil War. Royal connections One of the best known events to take place in Dorset during the Civil War was the siege at Corfe Castle. The castle had been purchased… Read more Cash Flow Problems and the Civil War
It seems very modern to have women leading political parties in the twenty-first century, but women holding public office may not have been considered so revolutionary by our medieval and Tudor ancestors. In 1532 Joan (Latin form Joanna) Bedford was elected to be the head of Longflete tithing (decennarius), an office equivalent to a modern… Read more Election of Women to Public Office
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